Rita Panahi: When the state gives itself the right to intrude on your land without your permission, it’s breaching a fundamental right

Labor’s treatment of rural Victorians has been shameful. But the country is fighting back and one particular standoff shows how fed up farming communities are with the state government.

Dan Andrews’ authoritarian streak is alive and well in his successor, Jacinta Allan.

Late in August, the Allan government jammed through legislation that undermines the rights of farmers and other landholders in regional areas across the state.

The unjust laws allow officials to use “reasonable force” to enter whatever property they deem necessary for the construction of giant transmission lines and towers upwards of 80 meters.

And if farmers fail to comply, they can be hit was crippling fines. It’s all in the service of transitioning from cheap, reliable energy to ‘renewables’ – or, to be more precise, intermittent energy.

Jacinta Allan is carrying on Dan Andrews’ authoritarian streak. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

When Labor’s legislation passed the upper house, thanks to the ever reliable support of the Greens, Cannabis and Animal Justice parties, Victorian Farmers Federation president Brett Hosking lashed out at the Allan government for the imposition of unfair, unjust laws.

“These coercive powers, threats of compulsory acquisition, threats of big fines … all they’re going to do is create more discontent, distrust and disharmony in the community,” he said.

“The opposition will last longer, be stronger, and the transition’s going to take a whole lot longer.”

Victorian Labor has long treated farmers and regional communities like second class citizens. But the country is fighting back.

Earlier this week, there was a standoff at a farm in the Wimmera, where hundreds of farmers faced off against the Victorian government agency VicGrid.

In its efforts to conduct ecological surveys ahead of construction of the massive VNI West transmission line, VicGrid has been trying to access dozens of properties in the Wimmera region including Ben Duxson’s farm.

They picked on the wrong guy.

Farmer Ben Duxson. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The sheep and grain farmer not only refused access to his land but led a 400-strong blockade of the property with hundreds of farmers travelling to Kanya to stand with Duxson.

“VicGrid asked for the owner and said under section 93 we’ve got the right to come in, and we can come in,” Mr Duxson said.

“We just say, ‘no, access denied’. They don’t actually have the right – we’ll just keep locking the gate … I think we can double our numbers next time.

“Are they going to fine us all? They’re going to need to bring in buses, and there’s not enough room in the jails.”

That’s the sort of pioneering spirit that this country was built on. I’m ready to nominate Duxson as the next Victorian of the Year.

Farmers who travelled from across the state to join the protest at Duxson’s farm represent communities that are fed up with a state government that has for too long taken them for granted.

The ill feeling towards these illiberal and inept policies that threaten not only Victoria’s energy security but also the rights of landholders cannot be understated.

Farmers who travelled from across the state to join the protest at Duxson’s farm.

“This is a government-induced energy crisis, it’s nothing to do with farmers holding up the project,” Mr Duxson said.

“It’s a bad policy and we’re not going to put up with it. That’s why people are standing at the gate, it’s on principle … it can’t work.”

The Victorian government’s plan of retiring coal plants and hitting its renewable energy target of 95 per cent by 2035 is the stuff of fantasy.

We are continuously sold the lie that renewables are the cheapest form of energy even as our energy costs skyrocket due to the transition to unreliable, intermittent and ultimately expensive renewable energy.

The Centre for Independent Studies found that “very few countries have exceeded around 40 per cent (renewables), and those that do end up with elevated electricity prices”. In their “renewable energy honeymoon” paper, they argued that “energy policy must be based in engineering and economic reality, not ideology” and concluded that “as the proportion of weather-dependent energy (solar and wind) in the grid grows, the costs and difficulties of integrating this energy also grow at an increasing rate … the honeymoon ends somewhere between 20 per cent and 30 per cent.”

The Victorian government’s policies are not only driving up costs and reducing reliability but they are impinging on the rights of property holders whose taxes prop up this state.

When the state gives itself the right to intrude on your land without your permission, it’s breaching a fundamental right.

Private land rights matter.

Labor’s treatment of rural Victorians has been shameful.

Victoria’s energy mess is entirely self-inflicted, with policies built on the naive fantasy that an advanced, industrialised state can rely almost entirely on intermittent renewables.

Instead of reassessing the ideology that created this crisis, Labor has doubled down, seeking to shift the burden onto the very people least responsible for its many policy failures.

Originally published as Rita Panahi: When the state gives itself the right to intrude on your land without your permission, it’s breaching a fundamental right